# Lionel Greenstreet > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lionel_Greenstreet > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lionel_Greenstreet.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Greenstreet > Source revision: 1275146875 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) British polar explorer (1889–1979) Lionel Greenstreet Lionel Greenstreet, taken on board Endurance by Frank Hurley Born 20 March 1889 Died 13 January 1979(1979-01-13) (aged 89) Occupations Sailor Marine insurance Spouses Millie Baddeley Muir Audrey Day **Lionel Greenstreet** (20 March 1889 – 13 January 1979) was the [first officer](/source/Chief_mate) of the *[Endurance](/source/Endurance_(1912_ship))* and a member of the [Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition](/source/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition) of 1914–1917, for which he was awarded the [Polar Medal](/source/Polar_Medal). When he died on 13 January 1979, he was the last survivor of the [Weddell Sea party](/source/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition#Expedition) within the expedition. ## Biography Greenstreet was born into a family of officers in the [merchant navy](/source/Merchant_navy) of the British Empire; his father Herbert Edward Greenstreet had been granted captain's papers by the [New Zealand Shipping Company](/source/New_Zealand_Shipping_Company). At age 15, Greenstreet became a [sea cadet](/source/Sea_cadet), never returning to school. He gained his [Master's certificate](/source/Master_mariner) in 1911. As a young ship's officer, he wrote to the Captain of the *Endurance*, [Frank Worsley](/source/Frank_Worsley) in 1914, asking to be considered for a berth. His request arrived just as the ship's named First Officer had thrown up his papers to accept service in [World War I](/source/World_War_I), which had just broken out. Greenstreet was told to report to the *Endurance* in [Plymouth Sound](/source/Plymouth_Sound) for an interview; and upon arrival, after brief inspection by Worsley he was abruptly told that the position of First Officer was his and that he had twenty-four hours to prepare for the departure of the vessel to the [Southern Ocean](/source/Southern_Ocean). The fledgling ship's officer recalled that after considerable effort he had settled his affairs and reported aboard the ship, which then sailed 30 minutes after his arrival.[1] The expedition's overall commander was the explorer [Ernest Shackleton](/source/Ernest_Shackleton), and the goal of the *Endurance* was [Vahsel Bay](/source/Vahsel_Bay) on the coast of Antarctica, from which Shackleton and the shore party hoped to cross the icy continent by [dogsled](/source/Dogsled); but on 18 January 1915, a few miles short of this destination, the ship was beset by ice and frozen into heavy pack from which she would not emerge.[2] Greenstreet's duties changed with the new status of his ship; he kept deck watches in an attempt to find a lead of open water through which the ship could extricate itself,[3] and joined a crew assigned to work below-decks in a futile attempt to stop the leaks that the ice was beginning to punch through the ship's hull.[4] Despite the work of Greenstreet and his seamen and fellow ship's officers, Shackleton was forced to issue the order to abandon ship on 27 October.[5] The expedition's 28 members and ship's company had to camp together as castaways on the frozen surface of the [Weddell Sea](/source/Weddell_Sea).[6] ### Castaway After the *Endurance* was abandoned, Greenstreet's duties again changed. He was given brief command of a team of [sled dogs](/source/Sled_dog),[7] and helped to hunt for fresh meat to supplement the castaways' inadequate supply of food. Shackleton later recalled with gratitude how Greenstreet and his hunting partner, [Alexander Macklin](/source/Alexander_Macklin), had killed and brought in a [Weddell seal](/source/Weddell_seal) weighing 800 pounds.[8] At a slightly later stage of their self-rescue, after the icy campsite of the men of the *Endurance* had drifted northward into warmer water, the change in water temperature caused their refuge to melt and on 9 April 1916 they were forced to climb aboard the open boats that they had salvaged from their former vessel.[9] Shackleton and his men had salvaged three lifeboats, and Greenstreet was the fourth-ranking member of the expedition. He accompanied his captain, Frank Worsley, in the *[Dudley Docker](/source/Dudley_Docker)* during the eight-day ordeal that marked the progress of the open-boat flotilla to a new and more secure campsite on [Elephant Island](/source/Elephant_Island) in the archipelago of the [South Shetlands](/source/South_Shetlands).[10] Greenstreet, although characterised by Worsley as "a fine seaman",[11] was not chosen to accompany the six-man party that set out from Elephant Island to [South Georgia Island](/source/South_Georgia_Island). Instead the former first officer was detailed to a two-man party, working with [William Bakewell](/source/William_Lincoln_Bakewell), to alter bits and scraps of salvaged ship's [canvas](/source/Canvas) into a jury-rigged canvas [deck](/source/Deck_(ship)) to enable the sole remaining sail-worthy lifeboat of the ship's company, the *[James Caird](/source/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird)*, to navigate in the open sea. Worsley, whose life would depend upon the success of this work,[12] describes it as follows: Frozen like a board and caked with ice, the canvas was sewn, in painful circumstances, by two cheery optimists – Greenstreet, Chief Officer of the *Endurance*, and Bakewell, a Canadian [sic] AB. The only way they could do it was by holding the frozen canvas in the blubber fire till it thawed, often burning their fingers, while the oily smoke got in their eyes and noses, half-blinding and choking them. Then they sewed, often getting frostbitten and having to use great care that the difficult sewing with cold, brittle sail needles did not break all of our now scanty supply. All the time, while repeating the unpleasant task of thawing a length, and sewing it, 'Horace' [Greenstreet] was irrepressibly cracking his sailor jokes and Bakewell replying.[13] The sails hoisted, Shackleton, Worsley and the *James Caird* set out into the Southern Ocean. Greenstreet and his 21 fellow castaways remained encamped on Elephant Island, and were rescued on 30 August 1916. ### Later life and character Lt Greenstreet, photographed by [David Knights-Whittome](/source/David_Knights-Whittome) in 1917 After the end of the expedition and with World War I continuing, Greenstreet was commissioned as a [second lieutenant](/source/Second_lieutenant) in the Inland Water Transport arm of the [Royal Engineers](/source/Royal_Engineers) in 1917,[14] serving in supply barges on the [Tigris](/source/Tigris) in British-occupied [Mesopotamia](/source/Mesopotamia).[15] He married Millie Baddeley Muir in 1917. After the war, Greenstreet chose shore life, working in [marine insurance](/source/Marine_insurance). He saw active service in [World War II](/source/World_War_II) as an officer in the [Royal Naval Reserve](/source/Royal_Naval_Reserve).[16] Greenstreet left command of [Admiralty tug](/source/Admiralty_tug) *Freebooter* in January 1942 to become [rescue tug](/source/Rescue_tug) equipment officer in charge of the US shipbuilding programme of rescue tugs for the Admiralty under [lend-lease](/source/Lend-lease). After the war, he resumed insurance work prior to retirement.[1] His wife Millie died in 1955 and he married Audrey Day. Worsley, who had chosen Greenstreet on very short notice to join the fateful expedition, repeatedly paid tribute to him in his memoirs. During the first open-boat journey, "Greenstreet was splendid, never losing hope and always ready to crack some appalling sailor-joke."[17] On Elephant Island Worsley's last sight of Greenstreet prior to the Southern Ocean trip was his former First Officer, "cheerfully profane as ever", helping to bag stones to be loaded onto the *James Caird* as ballast.[18] ## Notes 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Coolantarctica_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Coolantarctica_1-1) ["Lionel Greenstreet (1889–1979) – Biographical notes"](https://web.archive.org/web/20070814103824/http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/biography/greenstreet_lionel.htm). *coolantactica.com*. Archived from [the original](http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/biography/greenstreet_lionel.htm) on 14 August 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2011. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Shackleton, p. 32. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Shackleton, p. 78. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Shackleton, pp. 79–80. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Shackleton, p. 83. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Shackleton, pp. 83–84. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Shackleton, p. 90. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Shackleton, p. 115. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Shackleton, pp. 133–34. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Worsley, p. 37. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Worsley, p. 58. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Worsley, p. 98. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Worsley, pp. 97–98. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** ["No. 29965"](https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29965/supplement/2102). *[The London Gazette](/source/The_London_Gazette)* (Supplement). 27 February 1917. p. 2102. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Shackleton, p. 375. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** ["No. 29965"](https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29965/page/4808). *[The London Gazette](/source/The_London_Gazette)*. 6 August 1940. p. 4808. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Worsley, pp. 62–63. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** Worsley, p. 100 ## Sources - Shackleton, Ernest (1999) [1919]. [*South: The Endurance Expedition*](https://archive.org/details/southenduranceex00shac). New York City: Signet/[New American Library](/source/New_American_Library). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780451198808](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780451198808). - Worsley, F.A. (1977). [*Shackleton's Boat Journey*](https://archive.org/details/shackletonsboatj00wors). New York City: [W.W. Norton & Co.](/source/W.W._Norton_%26_Co.) [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-393-08759-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-393-08759-X). v t e Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition Events Drift of the Aurora Voyage of the James Caird Rescue by the Yelcho Luis Pardo Locations Caird Coast Cave Cove Elephant Island Fortuna Glacier King Haakon Bay McDonald Ice Rumples Mount Worsley Peggotty Bluff Stromness Stromness Bay Personnel Aurora Atkin d'Anglade Donnelly Downing Glidden Grady Hooke Kavanagh Larkman Maugher Mugridge Ninnis Paton Shaw Stenhouse Thompson Warren Wise Shore party: Cope Gaze Hayward Jack Joyce Mackintosh Richards Spencer-Smith Stevens Wild Endurance Bakewell Blackborow Cheetham Clark Crean Green Greenstreet Holness How Hudson Hurley Hussey James Kerr Macklin Marston McCarthy McIlroy McLeod McNish Mrs Chippy Orde-Lees Rickinson Shackleton Stephenson Vincent Wild Wordie Worsley Category Commons Authority control databases SNAC --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lionel Greenstreet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Greenstreet) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Greenstreet?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.